The Eagle Ford Shale drilling rig count fell by two rigs to 261 running over the past week. Every week there are rigs in transit to the next location or waiting to begin drilling. Those rigs are not counted in the census, so somewhere around 5-10 rigs are not included. A change of just two in one week really doesn't tell us much. We've floated just above 206 rigs for the entire year and we won't likely see any major changes unless oil prices breakout of the $90-100/bbl range.

The U.S. rig count fell 11 rigs to 1,748 rigs running, of which 832 are running in Texas. A total of 353 rigs are targeting natural gas and 1,390 are targeting oil in the U.S. The remainder are drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.).

We shared the new TX RRC Eagle Ford well map on the site this week. It's obvious natural gas prices have been better and significant processing has come online in the first half of 2013. The natural gas producing well count has increased by almost 50% from less than 1,000 wells to almost 1,500. Read more in the article Eagle Ford Shale Well Map - TX RRC May 2013

It's also of note that while natural gas prices were increasing, rigs were moving from oil prone to more gas prone areas of the play. For example, the rig count in Karnes County grew to a 2013 peak of 39 rigs in mid-May. That was up from 23 rigs in mid-February. That trend has reversed as natural gas prices have fallen over the past several weeks. Prices hit a peak of $4.40/mmbtu in April have been on a path to ~$3.50 since. The Karnes County rig count has followed and there are nine less rigs running (30) than we saw at the peak.

*Note* Now quoting Baker Hughes. Baker Hughes also releases its own Eagle Ford Rig Count that covers the 14 core counties (~230 rigs). Our numbers cover a 30 county area impacted by Eagle Ford development. A full list of the counties included can be found in the table at the bottom of this article.

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs

[ic-l]The natural gas rig count in the region gave three rigs back to fall to a total of 30 running. Natural gas futures fell $0.20 on the week to close near $3.59/mmbtu on Friday afternoon. That's a significant drop from the high of $4.40/mmbtu we saw in April.

One more or 230 oil rigs are running in the region this week. WTI futures rebounded with the broader equity markets during the week and ended near $97/bbl on Friday. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $93.50/bbl on June 27th.

McMullen & Karnes counties lead development with 31 and 30 rigs running, respectively. See the full list of drilling by county below.

South Texas Oil & Gas News:

• Corpus Christi Oil & Gas Expo July 16-17
• Port of Corpus Christi Barges Waiting To Move Eagle Ford Crude
• New Railroad Commission Eagle Ford Well Map
• Sand Hills NGL Pipeline Moving Eagle Ford Liquids
• Freeport LNG Raising Capital To Export Eagle Ford Gas

Be sure to visit our South Texas Oilfield Job Listings to search openings and come back weekly for updates.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

agle Ford Operated Rig Count By Company

SmithBits no longer reports its operated rig count, but we'll have updated number for you from a new source soon. Until then, you can reference our numbers from mid-April. There has not been a significant change in the overall rig count since this date:

What is the Rig Count?

The Eagle Ford Shale Rig Count is an index of the total number of oil & gas drilling rigs running across a 30 county area in South Texas. The South Texas rigs referred to in this article are for ALL drilling reported by Baker Hughes and not solely wells targeting the Eagle Ford formation. All land rigs and onshore rig data shown here are based upon industry estimates provided by the Baker Hughes Rig Count and/or Smith Service Co's (Schlumberger) Smith Rig Count.